After a Hundred Years
by FaylinnNorse
Summary: When I woke up I was all alone. There was no prince to kiss me awake and ride off with me into the sunset. A hundred years is a long time. [Sleeping Beauty oneshot]


This is just an idea I had, but I'm not sure it really worked out as well as I wanted it to...anyways, I hope you enjoy it! Remember to review!

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When I woke up, I was all alone. There was no prince to kiss me awake and ride off with me into the sunset. There were no servants also rising from their slumber, ready to serve me as they always had. It was just me, me and a castle falling to dust and covered in thorns. I rose from my faded and worn bed and walked throughout the once great halls. They were covered in dust and there was a tree coming through the throne room. 

Eventually I went outside. The wood that had always bordered our castle was now covering our castle. The once trimmed bushes were overgrown, covering everything. There were no gardeners, the stable was in complete ruins, and there was no one nearby for me to speak to.

A hundred years is a long time.

I walked through the forest, stumbling over the bushes and logs in my path, until I found my way to the city. It was nothing like I remembered. The people wore strange clothes, plain and rather ill fitting, in my opinion. They stared at me in my colorful garments, as if I were a strange creatures. They used strange tools of metal and iron, but there were no swords, no horses, no knights patrolling the area.

I stood at the edge of a street corner, watching children play on something that looked like an obstacle course of sorts. They were sliding down things and climbing up other things and swinging on wooden bars. I didn't know what to make of the site.

A little girl ran up to her mother, pointing at me in great excitement. "Mommy, Mommy, is she a princess?" she asked.

Her mother looked at me, frowning slightly as she took in my appearance.

I looked down at my clothes and blushed. My dress, once a bright blue like the sky had paled and was torn from the thorns and the trek through the forest.

"Hush," the woman said to her daughter. "Go back and play."

"But, Mommy, she looks like—like Sleeping Beauty!" the girl said.

Sleeping Beauty. Is that what they called me now? I suppose I did sleep for quite a while, and I _had_ been considered beautiful in my day, though I had always thought that my nose was shaped oddly and I got freckles rather too easily, but none of that had stopped the many suitors from flocking to me.

"That's just a story, sweetheart," the woman said. "Now go play with your friends."

The little girl sighed and did as her mother said, but not without staring at me for a moment. I smiled at her and she grinned back at me, before running back to the obstacle course.

I sighed and turned to walk back down the street. I felt so lost. I didn't know anyone. Everyone I had known had likely died years ago. I had thought it would be different, it was _supposed_ to be different. I had known the curse would make me sleep for a hundred years, of course, but somehow I thought everyone else would still be there, waiting for me when I got up, or at least that things wouldn't be so different.

A hundred years is a long time.

I went back to my castle after a time, not knowing what else to do. A hundred years had passed, and I didn't fit in the world anymore. They girl had thought I was straight out of a fairy story...it was all I was now. A beautiful tale, a bedtime story, but not a real person. So what was I to do now?

I looked at the thorns growing all over the castle, climbing up the sides, creeping along the grounds, everywhere. They should have been roses. They were _supposed_ to be roses. Everything had gone wrong. I felt hot tears sliding down my cheeks as I took a sharp breath. It wasn't supposed to be like this! There should have been a prince, there should have been a roses, or else I never should have woke up! I should have just died, if it was going to turn out like this! I was sobbing now, sobbing for my family, my home, and the prince I'd never find. My breathing came fast and hard, hurting my lungs. I put my hands over my mouth, trying to stop it. If I could just stop breathing it would all be over. I covered my mouth and nose and sat, not taking any breaths. I started feeling light headed. I couldn't do it. I took my hands away and breathed deeply.

What now? I looked at the thorns and the weeds. I walked into the gardens. They should have been roses, so I'd make them roses. I tore out every weed in the grounds with my bare hands that day. My hands were bloody and dirt covered when I was done. My nails were half torn off. I didn't care.

I marched into the city again and walked through every street until I found a shop with flowers everywhere in baskets and pots. There was an old man with white hair there. I told him I wanted to grow roses. He looked me up and down and I realized once again how ridiculous I looked compared to these people.

"What's your name?" he asked kindly.

I bit my lip. "Aurora," I said. "Or Briar Rose. They called me that when I was younger."

He nodded with a slight smile, like he knew something I didn't. He walked behind a desk and took out a small packet, laying it on the top of the counter. "Well, Aurora or Briar Rose, no roses have grown in our land for a hundred years, but these are rose seeds. With good care a bit of magic, perhaps you can break the curse." He said it in a jesting way, but it seemed like there was more to it. Maybe it was only because I grew up in the Dark Ages where everything meant something, but I knew I had to grow the roses. If I didn't I'd fade away, a story with no meaning. A girl sleeping in a castle with nothing ahead of her, no future, just a strange past.

I went back to the castle and put the seeds in the ground. Every day following I watered them and watched for them to start coming up. When I wasn't at the castle, I went into the city and talked to the man who had helped. I learned that his name was Mr. Jenkins and I asked him questions about the world and he didn't seem to think them odd, though other people looked at me funny when they heard. I got clothes like everyone else so I wouldn't stand out so much and Mr. Jenkins said he would cover all of my expenses for me if I could get the roses to grow.

They didn't grow. Finally the winter came around and I didn't know what to do. I practically started sobbing when I went to see Mr. Jenkins. He told me it was alright, and sometimes flowers could take years to actually come up.

So we waited through the winter and when spring came I was right back working on my roses and one day it finally happened. It was just a tiny bit of green coming out of the ground, it could have been grass for all I knew, but for me it was wonderful. It kept growing and more of it came up all around and the bits of green grew and grew until they were actually rose bushes.

I watered them and pruned them and cut them, until the first flower came. It was perfect, a sweet little bud of pink and then it opened up, all of its petals growing outwards, reaching out to life.

I hardly ever went into the city after that, I was too busy. The roses grew fast, far faster than they should have, according to Mr. Jenkins. They climbed up the wall and all over the ground, taking the place of the thorns. I worked hard to make them look the best I could, and for the first time in a long time, I was happy. I felt like I belonged somewhere.

One day the girl from the obstacle course, which I had learned was called a playground, came to the castle with a load of other children along with her.

"What are those?" she asked me.

"They're called roses," I answered.

"I've never seen them before."

"Yes, I've heard that they haven't grown here in a hundred years, but I'm determined to grow them."

"Why?" she asked.

I looked at her. Her brown curls were tumbling around her face. "Because...I need to. It's like...the birds need to fly. The wind needs to blow. And I need to grow roses, because if I don't I won't have a place in the world anymore." I glanced at her.

She peered at me with a puzzled expression, as if she was trying to work this out in her mind. "Are you a princess?" she asked after a moment.

I smiled. "What makes you say that?"

"You're pretty," she said. "And you came out of the woods. My grandpa told me there was a princess sleeping in the castle in the woods. This is the castle."

"What's your name?" I asked her, kneeling beside her so I was more her height.

"Rosie Jenkins," she replied.

Jenkins. I should have known. She reminded me of her grandfather, easily believing in everything. "Well, Rosie," I began. "I'm going to let you decide whether or not you think I'm a princess, but I want you to have this," I picked one of the roses off the bush next to us and handed it to her. "And remember that anything is possible."

She took the rose and smiled slightly. "Thank you," she said. With that she skipped away, taking her friends with her.

I watched them go, smiling. A hundred years is a long time, but not _so_ long.


End file.
